At 10 feet up, John Andrews leapt from the top rail of a ladder onto the back of his hand-sculpted dragon. He grasped a rusty chain between his hands and, using a pulley, hoisted the 6,000-pound metal beast off the ground.

He shifted his weight, riding its back as it levitated. Its shiny wings hovered in suspense as the dragon swiveled around, finally free.

Andrews, owner of JRA Welding, started working on “Monty, a doggone dragon” nearly nine months ago in the space next to his home in northwest Gainesville. The dragon, which is more than 70 feet long, is designed to have its face resemble a friend’s dog named Monty who recently died. The likeness is evident in its sleepy eyelids and floppy ears that hang just below its horns.

Monty the dragon is made entirely out of recycled materials. His snout was fashioned from a beer keg and his eyes are candle holders painted with fingernail polish. Covering his body are more than 12,000 scales, each individually cut by Andrews from the corrugated metal of multicolored shipping containers.

Saturday afternoon, Andrews rushed to finish the dragon in time for the unveiling party that evening. Smoke drifted upward and sparks bounced off metal as Andrews secured the scales around Monty’s snout with his metal inert gas (MIG) welder. He slammed his hammer on each scale, curving it to the dragon’s face. Though intricately designed, the dragon was hearty and easily heeded the hammer’s pounding.

“This is just all right out of his head, it just amazes me,” neighbor Rex Gruver said as he watched Andrews busily work on the dragon. Andrews was covered with sweat and smiling beneath his welder’s mask.

“He’s in his element, he is creating,” Gruver said, watching.

Andrews has worked for nearly two decades as a professional welder. He attended Ferris State University in Grand Rapids, Mich., for seven years, changing his major from mechanical engineering to welding engineering and finally to business management.

He has lived in Gainesville since 2002, working as a welder for a string of local businesses.

In 2011, Andrews helped weld the massive home on Southwest Fifth Street made out of nine shipping containers. The home is three containers wide and three containers tall with 36 solar panels on the roof.

Before Monty, he created a dragon sculpture named Norm. Designed after a couple’s dog, Norm sat upright on his hind legs with his mouth wide open and nose pointed toward the sky.

“I always liked dragons,” Andrews said. “Plus they have a lot of scales. Scales cover up all the ugly stuff.”

Andrews admits that he was originally motivated to create Norm in order to pay off a balloon payment on a home equity loan. But after he completed the sculpture, he decided to enter it in an art contest in downtown Grand Rapids called ArtPrize.

Last year, Norm made it into the top 25 selections, but this year Andrews is hoping to at least make it into the top 10. First prize at the competition, happening from Sept. 18 to Oct. 6, wins $200,000.

Andrews finished the bulk of the project Saturday evening, with only a few details left to refine. He hoisted the dragon up to place it on a large trailer that he and his wife, Susan, will soon drive to Michigan for the competition.

The dragon will sit on a downtown sidewalk in Grand Rapids during ArtPrize. It’s admission into the competition is sponsored by legal firm Barnes and Thornburg, LLP.

“I can’t believe how beautiful this thing looks. I am really happy with the way it turned out,” wife Susan Andrews said as she took a video of the dragon being hoisted.

“We are crossing our fingers on this one,” she said.

After nine months of watching her husband work on the sculpture, she said she is grateful for the sounds of banging metal to cease.

“Tax season, it’s a little difficult,” she said, laughing.

On the trailer, Monty balances on his twisted tail as he lurches forward. With his mouth open and his claws bared, Monty looks fierce. But Andrews said he sees the dragon’s behavior differently.

“It’s more of a playful thing for me. He’s kind of spinning around, dragging a foot, playing,” he said.

During the months of its elaborate creation, Andrews said he has developed a close relationship with Monty.